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Friday, 15 August 2008

Hanbagu

Ever since I started cooking for my family, I have been cooking dishes 'anyway' I like. I don't usually follow recipes closely and I have a tendency to take short cuts. Things started to change after I read a Japanese-Chinese cookbook. It is a great book, with many step-by-step photos to illustrate how to go about preparing the ingredients for cooking. It provides many useful tips and explains why certain steps have to be adhered to. It even includes details on when to turn up or turn down the heat while you are cooking the dish. For the first time, I was very disciplined and followed the recipe of a hamburger patty to a T.

This Hanbagu, the Japanese version of a hamburger, is served on a plate and not sandwiched between a bun. Besides the basic salt & pepper seasonings, eggs, onions, and bread crumbs are also added to the ground beef. Unlike most beef patty recipes I have seen, the minced onions are first sauteed before mixing with the meat. Although it seems like an extra step, I thought it is a good idea as I believe my kids would find the taste of the sauteed onions more bearable ;)

For a quick and simple weekday lunch, I served the hanbagu with some blanched french beans, carrots and cherry tomatoes. Thanks to the clear cooking instructions in the book, the meat patties turned out to be very juicy. The patties were 'steam-cooked' midway...this helped to retain the juice and yet ensured the patties were cooked through. I was quite skeptical about the instructions for making the sauce though. There was no cooking involved, the sauce was made simply by mixing some ketchup with Worcestershire sauce...it was too simple to be true. I tasted the mixture and it gave a real yucky taste! Nevertheless, I trusted the cookbook and went ahead to serve it with the hanbagu. To my amazement, the sauce actually went quite well with the meat patty! It tasted as if it was prepared with red wine?! As expected, my kids love the hanbagu, but made noise about the sauce :( I guess it would take sometime for them to acquire the taste, so in the mean time, I would have to look for another recipe for the sauce.

Place ground beef in a bowl, add beaten egg, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add in the cooked onion and breadcrumb mixture. Mix the mixture with hands until it becomes sticky.

Make four meat balls and toss each ball from one hand to the other hand a few times. This helps to prevent the meat patty from breaking into pieces during frying.

Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the meat patties over medium heat for 1~2 mins. Turn over and fry for another 1~2 mins. When both sides are lightly browned cover the pan with a lid and turn to Low heat. Allow to cook for about 7~8 mins. Remove the lid and cook until both sides are evenly browned. You can insert a toothpick or a skewer into the centre of the beef patty. If the juice runs clear the patties are done.

Hi, I made these last week as well!! Maybe you would take a look at my recipe based on another japanese cookbook. I am happy with my recipe as the worcestershire sauce taste isn't very overpowering. Cheers

Hi Jenny, do not grease the chiffon tin before baking. The batter needs to cling on to the side of the ungreased pan to rise. Once the cake is removed from the oven, invert it immediately. Let if cool off completely before unmolding.

Thanks for letting me know abt the bread crumbs. I cook this for lunch today and it is SO YUMMY :) My husband who normally doesnt like beef ate a big patty by himself. Thanks for sharing the joy of cooking!

If you make them at meatballs size you will get the traditionall Swedish meatball, same as they sell in IKEA. The sauce for swedish meatballs (Köttbullar) called brown sauce.Do Becahmel, put some meat fondue + soja sauce, mix a small amount of wheat flour with cream until solve and add to sauce. Putt the rest of cream and season with salt & black pepper.

just want to say a big thank you to you for sharing this recipe...i tried it last Sat and the patty was really very juicy and not dry at all. Mine is a bit salty though as i have added more salt than required...The sauce is great and my kids like them. will make them again!

Hi Octopusmum, glad to hear that your kids like these :) This recipe is indeed a keeper, I have use it to make hamburger patties and recently I made meatballs pasta with this recipe. It was really delicious!

I made this over the weekend, and my hubby and kids love it - two thumbs up from them. My elder daughter thinks that it is much better than those from Hard Rock. Thanks for making me feel like a super duper mummy!

This is a really great recipe, I've never made burgers so tasty before. It's definitely a keeper. I used 500g of beef mince, dried onion flakes since I didn't have any fresh onion on hand, used 2 small eggs and more salt. I microwaved a small amount to taste test so I could get the flavour just right before frying. Thank you so much for sharing!

Hi Octopusmum, although I have not tried it, I think there shouldn't be any problem freezing them. If not, you can reduce the amount by half. Nowadays, I will mix half portion of ground beef with half portion of ground pork (from meat with some fat, not lean meat). The taste is even better as the fat from the pork will make the meat balls even more juicy.

HI HHBi mixed half beef half pork and yes, the patty was juicier but not sure why, we were v thirsty the whole day after that. it wasn't salty at all so i really don't know the reason. it was okay the first time i cooked this...do u happen to know why?thksregardsoctopusmum